I considered giving this a 5. It has everything and it manages to be both a Space Opera and a Thriller! Fantastic tech, complex enthralling plot, vivid page-turning prose, great characters. Stunning. ( )

"enzyme bonded concrete" ad nauseum ( )

I *really* enjoyed the first book - between the Prime aliens, the SI, and other one-off aliens it really felt like an incredible world; it's like nothing I've read before. However, this isn't as good for a few reasons:
1) The wrap up at the end has nearly everyone who was not explicitly killed magically surviving through various means, it really took away the risk those characters took at the end and watered it down.
2) The entire SI plot goes nowhere. This maybe more fully developed in the Void series, but it was a huge unresolved issue. Why did it choose Mellanie and why did it barely intercede even though the Prime aliens were hell bent on destroying everything in the universe?
3) Speaking of Mellanie, she was a terrible character: sleeping her way around, not contributing a thing on her own without her sexual partners or the SI. I had thought she would grow in the second book at be able to hold her own, but alas that wasn't to be. Unfortunately most of his depictions of women in this book are terribly dated at best.
( )

For me, this was an audiobook, narrated by the venerable John Lee. Although it's harder to follow an audiobook for such a big book, I suspect it would have taken me a long time to finish a print or ebook version. It's pretty complex, with a lot of characters, but it wasn't too hard really. Sometimes it might take a little while to put together what is happening, since there are many things going on at the same time, with plots, subplots, and other deviations.

This was part 2 and mainly a continuation of part 1, so overall it's a huge book. It got a bit long-winded as explained in detail many facets of life in that universe, but I found it all to be interesting even when my attention had trouble following my thoughts. Things fit together well, and parts could be skimmed over without missing too much. Sometimes, I just let it flow, getting impressions rather than details, and it seemed to work although occasionally, I had to backtrack when I missed something important.

There were some interesting characters and relationships throughout the book, a bit of humor here and there, and a lot of scientific aspects to think about. It all fit together well, and was believable within the context of the story, and probably possible in the future.

If you plan to read this, plan to spend a good chunk of time. Be sure to start with the first book of the series, Pandora's Star, and plan to continue on with this one. ( )

Brilliant. Builds a little slowly, but the imagination and visualisation of Hamilton keeps the interest levels high. A fitting end to the saga. ( )